Global packaging manufacturer restructures IT to support a vision of sustainability

Experienced IT leader realigns team for organizational success

Mauser Packaging Solutions is a global leader in sustainable industrial packaging products and services. With a network of more than 180 design, manufacturing, and recycling facilities delivering high-quality solutions across the entire packaging life cycle, Mauser supports a circular “reduce-reuse-recycle” model. The company is committed to redefining sustainability and providing solutions that have a positive impact on businesses and the planet.

With locations across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America, Mauser’s IT team plays a significant role in supporting operations and advancing the organization’s priorities. Ed DePrimo, Global CIO, joined the organization in 2018 with the mandate to realign the IT team for success, which required merging five independent IT teams, optimizing IT’s budget, and establishing processes to deliver enhanced performance. With over 30 years of experience in manufacturing, specialty chemicals, and high-tech industries, DePrimo was well-suited for the challenge.

Restructuring IT with expert support

Creating a global IT team by combining multiple groups from many different acquisitions presented a variety of complexities. These included determining the team’s capabilities and scope of operation, identifying talent shortages and training requirements, and managing team transitions. To help with these organizational challenges, DePrimo called on Info-Tech for the latest best-practice IT research and advisory services. “Info-Tech provided practical research and tools to help us quickly align on an overall model,” said DePrimo. “It wasn’t just theory and predictions. The material and expert advice provided was very practical.”

Through analyst calls and workshops, Info-Tech supported tough discussions around the team’s restructuring and core priorities, offering clear objectives and validations for planned courses of action. “We got the working knowledge, but we also got a sense of what the end game looked like,” noted DePrimo. “Info-Tech analysts explained the benefit of what we were doing, why it would work, and how other companies had done it. They told us, ‘You’re not going into this blindly,’ and that helped the leadership as we evolved into a new IT organization.”

As part of the restructuring, a core IT services team was defined, and business partner teams were set up. The core team was charged with providing consistent service levels for all business units and leveraged the Info-Tech process model to establish standard operating processes. The business partner teams, comprising four divisional and regional leaders, reported directly to the CIO and ensured organizational alignment through weekly leadership meetings. “The business partner strategy really worked out well. Each business unit within the IT team was focused on the unique needs of each BU, and the rest of the IT organization was charged with providing a consistent service delivery process from IT,” said DePrimo.

Shortly after establishing this new IT operating model, the company made multiple large-scale acquisitions. IT was able to onboard these new companies and align IT services fairly quickly by leveraging the new model and continued to lean on Info-Tech to continuously improve as new challenges arose.

Cost optimization via contract and vendor negotiations

As with many companies after digesting large-scale acquisitions, Mauser's IT mandate shifted to a lean approach to operating its restructured IT organization to save millions in IT expenses. Once again, DePrimo turned to Info-Tech to help Mauser forge optimal relationships with vendors.

Leaning on Info-Tech’s expertise in building better RFP processes, the team realized significant savings and established a solid process for future vendor selections. DePrimo explained, “Info-Tech’s RFP process was exactly the right thing for us. Info-Tech analysts did the first three or four with us, and we were able to secure about a million dollars or more in savings. We are now at a point where we can complete the process ourselves, but when it gets complex we’ll call an Info-Tech analyst.”

Similarly, Info-Tech’s Contract Review service helped DePrimo’s team reduce risks, find savings, and negotiate better terms in major vendor contracts. He recalled, “We had to renegotiate with ServiceNow on our contract, and we had an Info-Tech analyst who had previous experience with ServiceNow tell us, ‘Here’s how the sales compensation plan works, and here’s the best time to get the best from your salesperson.’ It was beautiful.”

Decoding spending patterns for a lean organization

Realigning the IT organization with the right structure, technology, processes, and budget required managing internal key collaborators. DePrimo had to justify IT spend and confirm the leanness of the IT organization. To do this, the team used Info-Tech’s IT Spend & Staffing Benchmarking Assessment to conduct an evaluation. The service provides a comprehensive report on IT resource allocation, with industry benchmarking insights and feedback to guide improvement.

“The value of the IT Staffing Assessment tool was the data we collected. Although we had a pretty good view of our data, the way the Info-Tech team sliced it forced us to really think differently. We all walked away with better insight into how we were spending our money and where people were working.”
– Ed DePrimo, Global CIO, Mauser Packaging Solutions

Executive support for executive influence

DePrimo also included an Info-Tech Executive Counselor within his leadership circle. Executive Counselors are seasoned IT executives dedicated to helping IT leaders meet their organizational goals and develop their executive influence through one-on-one sessions, personal effectiveness planning, and a custom key initiative plan.

“My Info-Tech Executive Counselor has been a great sounding board. What’s nice about our collaboration is that I can tell her about a challenge, and she’ll connect me with three other people who’ve been through the same thing. I’ve found this networking particularly useful,” explained DePrimo.

Building a resilient IT organization for the future

As new waves of technological advancements surge, IT leaders in the industrial manufacturing industry face the challenges of managing complex supply chains, getting the right talent, and adopting modern technologies. To overcome these, DePrimo observed that IT leaders must be ready to pivot, lead, explain, and assess technological adoption for their organizations.

Ultimately, DePrimo concluded, IT leaders need to build organizations that can stand the test of time by delegating where necessary.

“You've got to be able to build a resilient organization, and that means letting go, helping the team succeed, and holding them accountable. I've seen so many places where the CIO leaves and everything crumbles. That is a bad model.”
– Ed DePrimo, Global CIO, Mauser Packaging Solutions

As an IT leader, DePrimo takes pride in his ability to gather and lead a talented team that works well together. “It starts with a huge amount of trust, respect, and collaboration,” said DePrimo. “Building this culture of trust has probably been the most rewarding thing in this job.”